“Is she asleep?”
Sitting cross-legged on the living room sofa, Mai Suisui stared contemplatively at her phone screen, fixating on the thank-you message she had sent—【Hello, thank you for your encouragement; it gave me the courage to take the first step. Thank you!】
“Or did she see it and just doesn’t want to reply?”
But if she didn’t reply… how was Suisui supposed to ask for her opinion on the matter?
Forget it, she would wait a little longer.
Ten minutes passed, and there was still no reply to the sent message.
Half an hour passed…
An hour passed…
It seemed the other party really wasn’t going to respond.
After thinking for a moment, Mai Suisui composed another text message and sent it out.
…
“Cough!”
Nearly choking on the alcohol in her mouth, Yu Nian frowned and looked at a smiling Xu Ya.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re twenty-seven this year, aren’t you? It’s time you had a life of your own. You have to realize that the reason we work hard is to make our lives beautiful. But romance is an indispensable part of a beautiful life; if you don’t enjoy it now, it’ll be too late.”
Yu Nian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You’ve misunderstood.”
“Misunderstood what? Don’t I know you? When have you ever been so good-tempered with people? If it were truly a harassment text, you would have blacklisted them long ago. Some ‘lunatic who likes harassing people’? Do you think I can’t tell those are sweet nothings between the two of you?”
Yu Nian: “…”
Ding~
A clear notification sound rang out abruptly.
In the darkness, the phone hidden inside the bag lit up, displaying a new message.
【Someone: Are you asleep?】
“Ooh, this harassment text just won’t stop, huh?”
Facing Xu Ya’s teasing expression, Yu Nian’s face became even more awkward. Realizing it would be difficult to explain, she decided to continue the topic they had originally been discussing.
“It’s been three years. How have you been lately, Senior?”
“How else could I be? You’ve seen my situation at the company; nothing special. But you—not only did you become my boss, but you’ve caused quite a stir since you arrived.”
“I didn’t come here of my own free will,” Yu Nian exhaled, her answer loaded with implication.
“I’ve heard a bit about your complicated family in the past…” Speaking to this point, Xu Ya paused, skipped over the topic, and continued: “After you arrived, I originally wanted to warn you that An Yingchuan isn’t a simple man, but now it seems you’re even more formidable.”
“Mhm, I’m grateful to President Yu for letting me take the position of Sales Department Manager! From now on, I’ll go through fire and water at your command, President Yu!”
Hearing Xu Ya’s playful words, Yu Nian smiled and raised her beer can to clink against hers.
“It’s better if we maintain a distant relationship within the company.”
Xu Ya sat up straight, nodding while offering a mysterious smile. “I don’t care about that… Old An is leaving anyway, so why should I keep making things hard for myself? I’m the Sales Department Manager under President Yu now; wouldn’t it be a waste of President Yu’s kind intentions if I were afraid of this or that?”
Mentioning this caused Yu Nian to smile faintly.
“But you’re right,” Xu Ya looked at Yu Nian admiringly. “Sometimes it’s not bad to hide things. Besides, there’s no benefit for you to be associated with me during this period. In the future, when we meet at the company, we’ll act just like before—pretend we don’t know each other. Who knows, I might even become a useful card in your hand. It sounds quite interesting.”
Yu Nian understood her thinking and nodded in agreement.
Ding!
Another crisp text notification.
Facing Xu Ya’s playful gaze, Yu Nian continued to ignore the new message on her phone. She tilted her head back and finished the last sip of beer in the can.
…
Regardless of whether the person on the other end was asleep or intentionally not replying, Mai Suisui poured out everything that had happened during this time into her messages.
Holding her phone with both hands, Mai Suisui waited for a good while, but still received no response. She took a deep breath and glanced at the clock on the wall.
Ultimately, she could only throw her phone onto the sofa in frustration, getting up to walk back to her bedroom.
After pressing the switch, the lights went out. As the bedroom door closed, everything returned to silence.
The Next Day.
Unlike the Sales Department, which was a whirlwind of busyness, the atmosphere in the CEO’s office on the top floor of the ZS Building was somewhat quiet.
“What is this?”
Sitting behind the office desk, Yu Nian looked at the pink thermal flask placed in front of her.
“It’s fish soup.”
“Fish soup?”
“Yes… it’s very good for sobering up.”
As she spoke, the constrained-looking girl carefully observed the woman’s expression.
Yu Nian was stunned for a moment, then, seeing Mai Suisui’s expression, she realized. She turned her head to sniff her own scent, showing an embarrassed expression for the first time: “…Is the smell of alcohol very strong?”
Mai Suisui waved her hands hurriedly, explaining in a low voice: “No… I heard from Secretary Jin that you slept at the company last night after drinking.”
Yu Nian breathed a sigh of relief. “I was thinking—I specifically went home to shower and change after I woke up, so there shouldn’t have been a smell of alcohol.”
“Anyway, thank you for the gesture.”
Yu Nian gave her a faint smile and pushed the pink thermal flask back. “But even as your superior, I have no reason to accept such a kindness. I’ve received the sentiment; you should take the soup back and drink it yourself.”
“…Yes.”
Hearing Yu Nian say this, Mai Suisui nodded slightly and reached out to pull the flask back into her arms.
“Is there anything else?”
Just as she was about to turn around, Mai Suisui seemed to remember something. Her footsteps paused, and she looked back slightly. Yu Nian noticed the movement and looked at her again.
“No, it’s nothing! President Yu, I’m going back to work!”
Watching the girl run back to her seat clutching the thermal flask, Yu Nian was a bit puzzled. Why was Mai Suisui so tense today?
Speaking of which, she hadn’t had a chance to look at the messages Mai Suisui sent yesterday.
Last night, after chatting with Xu Ya, she went straight to the company to sleep. When she went home to wash up this morning, she found her private phone had died. She left it at home to charge and forgot to bring it back.
Mai Suisui probably didn’t send anything important, right?
Yu Nian didn’t give it much thought and went back to flipping through her documents.
Knock, knock.
The sound of someone rapping on the desk brought the daydreaming Mai Suisui back to reality.
As she looked up, Shen Qingqing’s small face, filled with suspicion, entered her field of vision.
“I say, how long have you been dazing off while hugging that thermal flask?”
Mai Suisui shook her head and offered no explanation, turning to ask instead: “Do you want some fish soup for lunch? I have too much here; I can’t finish it alone.”
“Wait,” Shen Qingqing said with a look of disbelief, “since when do you offer the food in your bowl to others?”
“Are you trying to insult me?” Mai Suisui looked at her crossly.
“You remember last year, right? I took just one duck leg from your lunch box, and you chased me for half an hour. What’s going on now? You’re actually giving away food you brought. Have you finally seen the light? Do you finally know how to maintain our friendship? Or did you do something to wrong me?”
Mai Suisui glared at Shen Qingqing with her large, bright eyes. “Eat it or don’t!”
“And you have the nerve to bring up last year? There was only one duck leg in that rice bowl! You took it—did you expect me to eat plain white rice?!”
Hearing Mai Suisui say this, Shen Qingqing’s expression became visibly awkward. She coughed twice and muttered, “You were the one who said you wanted to lose weight…”
“By the way, why did you come up here? Don’t you have work?”
“It’s nothing,” Shen Qingqing sighed. “I only realized what kind of life you used to lead after our third group merged into the first. It’s tiring and depressing, so I slipped out for a stroll.”
“And you just had to come up here to me?”
“Aren’t we best friends? Besides, I’m not familiar with the people in the other groups, so I could only come to you. Anyway, enough about me—how are you doing?”
Shen Qingqing whispered cautiously: “Are you suffering under her thumb? I’m telling you, keep your guard up. I’ve been figuring things out these past few days; anyway, this woman is too deep. We can’t outplay her. You be careful.”
Shen Qingqing’s words made Mai Suisui suddenly glance guiltily toward Yu Nian’s office.
Even though it was far away and separated by a door, Mai Suisui still acted as if she were afraid of being overheard.
“What are you talking about? She’s helped me a lot. At the very least, both my horizons and my abilities have improved significantly while being here.”
“And your group leader was appointed by her. You should be grateful; at the very least, you shouldn’t speak ill of her, right?”
Mai Suisui prattled on and on, and the suspicion on Shen Qingqing’s face became more and more obvious.
“You and her… since when did your relationship get so good?”
“None of your business!” Exposed, Mai Suisui immediately tried to shoo her away. “The company is holding the annual meeting tonight. If your group’s work isn’t organized by this afternoon, you’ll be in trouble. Hurry back down and keep an eye on things.”
“I’m going, I’m going!” Shen Qingqing rolled her eyes helplessly. “You’ve been acting so mysterious lately.”
“According to reliable sources, after you stepped up last night, you couldn’t wait to thank a certain someone? How come I’ve never heard you mention such a person?”
“No way.” Mai Suisui looked incredulous. “You know about something that just happened last night? Are you and Jin Enna neighbors or living together?!”
“Ahem, ahem.” Shen Qingqing looked embarrassed. “Our two families just happened to have dinner together last night.”
“Don’t talk about me—you still haven’t told me who it is you want to thank. Am I no longer your best friend? Wuu wuu…”
She pretended to wipe her eyes, but seeing that Mai Suisui didn’t react at all, Shen Qingqing sighed in boredom. “It’s getting late; I’ll head out first.”
Before Mai Suisui could breathe a sigh of relief, Shen Qingqing suddenly turned back, a look of total disbelief on her face.
“Wait… this bowl of fish soup isn’t the ‘thank you,’ is it? To have you hugging it without letting go… the person you want to thank is her?”
While the process was wrong, the conclusion was correct.
She had sent many messages to “TA” yesterday, and that person still hadn’t replied.
But she had already made up her mind that she wanted to thank Yu Nian.
Just as she had told Shen Qingqing: regardless of Yu Nian’s motives, the result was that she had gained a great deal of improvement from it.
So, there was the fish soup.
And there was also her hesitation after Yu Nian rejected the soup—but that “thank you” ultimately remained unspoken.
Mai Suisui nodded helplessly.
Shen Qingqing clicked her tongue twice. “Did she not want it, or have you not given it yet?”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“I see, so she didn’t want it… I remember that fish soup is from the shop in the south of the city. It’s so far from the company—even taking the subway takes half an hour… Tsk tsk, a heart full of sincerity gone to waste!”
Mai Suisui pursed her lips and remained silent.